


Princes of the Universe

by AkinoAme



Series: The Theory of Everything [2]
Category: Ben 10 Series
Genre: Coming of Age, Gen, Navajo Tradition, Parental divorce
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-11-24
Updated: 2015-01-21
Packaged: 2018-01-02 11:49:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,983
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1056408
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AkinoAme/pseuds/AkinoAme
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A very young Ken meets Paradox the night of his fourth birthday, while his parents are fighting.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Stars

                It was Kenny's fourth birthday, and his dad forgot. Again. Mom tried not to make a fuss about it, but he could tell she was upset too—Ken could always tell. His pre-k teacher said he was very bright for his age, and Mom said he was destined for great things, and he knew that all he wanted was to be a hero like his dad. His drawings in art all included the Omnitrix, and he asked Dad to get it for him for his birthday. But honestly, he'd just be happy having his dad there for his birthday.

                He was asleep when Dad finally came home and woke him up to give him his present. It wasn't the Omnitrix, but it was a track for a really cool hovercar set, and he promised to help Ken set it up that weekend. Then he kissed him goodnight and left him in bed.

                That was when the yelling started.

                "You missed it _again_. I swear, do you even want to be a father?"

                "At least I try to be there for him!"

                "Excuse me?"

                "Don't give me that line about how hard you work being a good mother. The calls from school always come to me. I might be working all the time, but I'm always in touch."

                "You have no idea what I've given up..."

                "For what? For me? For our son?"

                "I had a life, Ben! I was a medicine woman! But no, you can't even begin to understand."

                "I would if you'd even talk to me! All you ever do is complain—complain and blame!"

                Ken closed his eyes tight and hugged his stuffed doll of Shin Ishiyama from _Shin Sumo Slammers: Samurai._ Tears were running down his face. He hated when they fought.

                A light suddenly turned on, and Ken opened his eyes to see stars dancing around his room.

                "Your parents forgot to turn your nightlight back on, didn't they?" asked a man.

                In the starlight, Ken could see a man close to his dad's age, but dressed in a white labcoat and goggles standing by the window. He started to reach for something in his pocket, and Ken screamed.

                His parents stopped fighting immediately and ran in.

                "Who are you?" Mom demanded.

                "Wait, Par—" Dad started.

                He didn't have time to finish. They froze in place, then ran backwards through the door, closing it, with the stars going backwards all the while.

                "I'm disappointed in myself," the man said. "I normally think my entrances through much better than that. Please do me a favor and don't scream again."

                Ken was shaking by now, hugging his doll and crying silently. The man saw this and sighed, "Oh dear, I really _have_ made a mess of things now, haven't I?"

                "I want my daddy," Ken said quietly.

                Mom and Dad were back to fighting, as if they'd never heard Ken scream for them. The man glared at the door and turned to the nightlight, turning on the music.

                "There. That should drown them out," he said judgmentally. "I don't know what Ben is thinking, arguing like that where his son can hear him."

                "You know Daddy?" Ken asked.

                "Of course I do—who in this part of the universe hasn't heard of the famous Ben 10?" the man asked. "Although I hear he's been calling himself Ben 10,000 for the past decade or so. I do miss the rhyme."

                Ken still wasn't sure whether or not to trust him, but the man only walked around the room, looking at his toys.

                "From the technology level, I'm guessing I'm sometime in the 2030s?" he asked.

                "I don't know," Ken answered.

                "Ah, well, I suppose an exact date was too much to ask for," he replied. "You can't be much more than five."

                Ken shook his head. "I'm four. It's my birthday."

                "It is?" the man asked. He finally noticed the hovercar box and declared, "So it is! And I didn't bring a gift—where are my manners? Well, there's nothing for it." He reached into his coat pocket again, but this time Ken didn't scream—he watched as the man pulled out a paper bag. "I have a terrible sweet tooth, and the last time I was in England in the 1970s, I picked some of these up. Would you care for a jelly baby?"

                "What's that?" Ken asked.

                "It's a kind of candy," the man answered, taking a gummy and popping it in his mouth. "Quite good, I must say. Although I suppose it is a bit cliché. Your father used to remind me I wasn't exactly the Doctor, but someone had to inspire that show."

                "You don't look like a doctor," Ken said.

                "Professor, actually," he corrected. "I was a teacher, not a healer. And I also dabbled in experimentation, which is what eventually led me here. But more importantly, I am a friend, not an enemy."

                Ken set down Shin, watching as the Professor ate another candy. Finally, he reached out, and the Professor gave him one.

                "It's a gummy bear," he giggled.

                "Very similar," the Professor replied. "Now, normally, you shouldn't accept candy from strangers, but I'm hardly a stranger to the Tennyson family."

                A door slammed somewhere in the house, and the Professor frowned again. "Ben, most likely. He has never known how to deal with Kai."

                "Are Mommy and Daddy okay?" Ken asked.

                "Physically, yes," he answered. "Psychologically, emotionally, spiritually...just not romantically." Ken looked at him, confused by all the big words. There was sadness on the Professor's face as he looked over at him. "A shame that you will have to pay for their mistakes."

                "What?"

                "Things will be harder for you from here on out, Ken," the Professor explained. "This awful moment is the start of the loss of your innocence. But it doesn't have to be. Never give up hope."

                "Hope?" Ken asked.

                "Look up," the Professor insisted. Ken looked to the ceiling, but instead of the nightlight he expected, the walls were gone, and real stars were all around them.

                "We're in space!" he cried.

                "Relatively speaking, yes," the Professor answered. "See the stars?"

                "Yes!" Ken answered.

                "Every single one of them has a story," he explained. "Each one has a name, and when you connect the stars into constellations, you create a story large enough for a legend."

                "Huh?"

                The Professor sat next to him and pointed out a group of stars. "That one is called Ursa Major, but you may know it better as the Big Dipper—do you see the handle and cup."

                "Yeah!"

                "Follow the star at the top of the end of the cup, and you'll find it pointing to another dipper."

                "I see it!"

                "That is the Little Dipper, Ursa Minor, and the star it's pointing to is called Polaris—the North Star. Well, at least for another thousand years or so. Long ago, people thought that those stars connected into familiar forms and created stories about them."

                "What kind of stories?"

                "Many about heroes."

                "Like my daddy?"

                "Similar, although there will be plenty of legends about your father in the future. But it's never just one person who creates a legend all by himself—he is always connected to other people, just as the stars are connected to each other to form a constellation and then a story."

                Ken drew his knees closer to him. "I wanna be a hero when I grow up. I wanna save people and fight bad guys."

                The Professor smiled. "That is a good story. I hope you write it one day. Fly the moon and reach for the stars, with your sword and your head held high."

                "What's that mean?"

                "Ask your great-grandfather someday," the Professor advised. "He's much better with classic rock than your father is."

                The stars began to fade, and the walls of Ken's bedroom reappeared, with the fake starlight swirling around. He yawned and asked, "Can I see the stars again?"

                "Not tonight, I'm afraid. Tonight was just a meeting, and we will have more in the years to come. And I wanted to remind you, in this difficult time, that you must remember how lucky you are to be loved. No matter what happens with your parents, no matter how many times they seem to forget about you, they will always love you. This love is your greatest gift, and one day, you will be able to give it to someone not nearly as lucky as you, and this will change the future."

                "I don't get it."

                "You will, in time."

                Ken started to lie down, dropping Shin to the floor. The Professor picked the doll up and placed it next to him, covering him with his blankets.

                "Goodnight, Ken Tennyson. Happy birthday, and many more to come."


	2. Sand

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ken is at his mother's when Paradox calls on her traditional healing to protect him from danger.

                It was Kenny's fifth birthday, and his parents were divorced.

                They had split up not long after his fourth birthday, and Mom had moved back to the reservation to be closer to her people. She had him for his birthday this year, and though Dad promised to call him before dinner, he hadn't yet.

                "I guess there's no reason waiting anymore," Mom said, lighting the candles on his birthday cake.

                Kenny was about to blow them out when there was a knock on the door. Confused, Mom got up and said, "Wait till I get back, okay?" and went over to the door. Kenny, however, was a big boy of five and wasn't going to wait for her to get back. He followed her quietly and watched her open the door.

                It was the Professor, and Mom growled, "Timewalker."

                "Hello, Kai!" he greeted cheerfully, checking his watch. "Oh, good. Just enough time for pleasantries."

                "You're not welcome here," Mom warned.

                "And now, out of time," he replied. "Well, not literally, of course—we still have plenty of time and space left, but who knows how long that will continue?"

                "Professor?" Kenny asked.

                "Back inside," Mom said immediately.

                "Hello, Ken," the Professor replied. "And yes, I do believe it would be good for you to get inside. Kai, lock the door."

                Mom seemed even angrier and more suspicious. "What's going on, timewalker?"

                "Eon," he answered.

                Mom pulled him inside and locked the door. "Kenny, into the kitchen, now. Blow out your candles—we'll do it again later. For real, this time." Turning back to the Professor, she asked, "What happened—I thought he was sealed away."

                "He's managed to put his situation to his advantage," he replied. "Locked away from his own world, he's trying to invade other timelines so he can become the only one left."

                "Has he gotten Ben?" Mom asked. The Professor nodded. "You don't think he'll come after Ken too..."

                "I wouldn't count it out," the Professor warned. "You'll have to perform a ceremony,"

                "I don't have nearly enough time to perform a full Enemy Way," she replied. "Or a Blessing Way."

                "You'll have to make due," he said.

                "This isn't some kind of hocus-pocus," Mom argued. "This is my people's culture, our sacred medicine! There are rites to be followed, even in an emergency. If I break even one of these taboos..."

                "Then we'll both have to hope that the Holy People will be in a forgiving mood," the Professor insisted, producing a staff in a flash of blue light. "Because right now—and I would know—we are _out of time._ "

                Mom hesitated for a moment before accepting the staff. "All right. I'll improvise. Kenny, wait in the kitchen with the Professor. I'll be right back."

                "Okay," he answered, more than a little sad to be ignored so easily.

                But the Professor walked over to him with a smile. "I didn't forget you. This is the second time we've met now, correct?"

                Kenny had already mastered "first," "second," and "third" in math by now, and he answered, "Yeah."

                Glancing over at the cake, the Professor said, "And it's your birthday again, I see."

                "Daddy's not here," Kenny explained sadly. "I'm at Mommy's right now."

                "Yes," the Professor replied, offering a sympathetic hand on his shoulder. "This is a difficult situation."

                "Daddy said he'd call..."

                "But right now, your father is in grave danger, and he does not wish to place your life in jeopardy either," the Professor explained.

                Again with the big words, but Kenny was bigger now, and he caught on well enough. "Is it another bad guy?"

                "Yes. And Ben is fighting to survive in a world with the darkest powers." He then smiled and said, "Another reference. Do ask your great-grandfather about music history one day."

                "Daddy's gonna win," Kenny insisted. "He's strong and can do anything."

                The Professor seemed sad as he said, "Yes, well, sometimes the darkness is stronger." Looking at the cake once again, he said, "And it seems those candles are about to burn out."

                A blue light appeared around the cake, and the candles suddenly grew, blown out on their own. As Kenny stared in shock, the Professor grinned and explained, "A simple trick. I merely reset the time to before your candles were lit. Helps keep the cake fresh."

                Mom re-entered, bearing the staff, now adorned with eagle feathers, and some baskets. "I need quiet if I'm going to do this."

                "Then I believe it is time for me to go, as my presence will undoubtedly disrupt the healing process," the Professor replied.

                In another flash of blue light, the professor disappeared. Kenny stared in surprise, but Mom had closed her eyes and begun to sway. Then in graceful, sweeping motions, she began to dance, singing breathlessly in the language of her people. Kenny didn't understand any of it and kind of wished he could just go have cake now, but he knew it was important and would help Dad, so he sat as still as he could.

                He got his chance to help when Mom instructed him to bring her the baskets, which contained sand in different colors. Sitting down on the floor, she started to spread sand across the floor.

                "Mommy!" he cried in shock. "You're getting the floor dirty!"

                "This is a sandpainting, one of our people's most sacred medicines," she explained, shaking. "It will call on the Holy People, so it's very important we get it right."

                Her hands were shaking badly now, so he asked, "Are you okay?"

                "There's a great evil we need to keep out of here," she said.

                "The one that Daddy's fighting?" he asked.

                "Yes," she answered, stroking his head with her sandy hands. They were still now, and she seemed to understand something he didn't. "I'm worried it'll come after you too, so we're going to do a healing to keep it away, okay?"

                Now, this he could get excited over. Dad never let him get involved with fighting bad guys, but Mom was, even if it wasn't fighting.

                "Make sure you follow all of my directions," she insisted. "Okay?"

                "Okay," he said.

                But helping wasn't quite as fun as he'd hoped it would be—Mom asked for certain colors, and he handed it to her. It was boring, and it was _long_ , and he felt like complaining, but Mom reminded him that there was the great evil they needed to keep out, and he couldn't do anything that might draw it to them. But she did let him eat a snack and take some paper and crayons to draw.

                "Can I draw what you're doing?" he asked, trying to get a good look at the picture.

                "No, and this is very important," she warned. "This picture is of the Holy People of our tribe. The sandpainting is connected to the earth, and it calls them to us, to absorb sickness and provide healing power. They do not like being called without a reason, and it can cause bad things to happen to anyone who breaks their rules."

                Kenny looked down at his picture, a very crude person based off the figure his mother was drawing. She looked over and smiled gently. "But, they don't come if you've made a mistake. It has to be perfect, or it won't work."

                "It's okay to mess up?" he asked.

                "In this case, yes," she promised.

                He could tell looking at the difference between his picture and hers that his wasn't perfect, but just in case, he scribbled out the figure he'd been drawing. Instead, he started drawing pictures from the trailers for the new _Shin Sumo Slammers: Samurai_ series, like the really cool-looking new guy, Yoroibu. He figured it would be safer this way.

                Mom continued painting well into the night, when she finally stood up. "This is the best I can do."

                Ken was sleepy, but he looked at the painting and said, "Pretty."

                "I hope it's enough," she said, opening the door.

                Afraid that the evil would come in, Kenny cried, "Mommy!"

                "Don't worry," she insisted, taking some feathered sticks. "We're only letting the good in."

                She set the sticks up on her painting, then picked up Kenny and carried him into the painting. He was half-asleep and didn't remember much of what happened next, other than that she'd rubbed some of the sand on his head, insisting that this would help heal them and keep the evil away. He didn't know if he felt better—only that he felt tired.

                He'd long since fallen asleep when the Professor returned. The light from his arrival woke Kenny up, and he looked up at him, confused. Some part of him started to realize there was something more to the Professor than he let on, but he was too tired to think about it.

                "It's over," the Professor said.

                Mom sighed in relief and stood up. The Professor helped keep her steady and took Kenny from her as she said, "I need to destroy the painting."

                "Of course," he agreed. "No need to keep contaminants around."

                Carefully and deliberately, Mom swept the sand away, reversing the order she'd created it. When it was finally in a pile, she swept it into a single basket and emptied it respectfully outside, toward the rising sun.

                There was still some sand left on the floor. Mom looked at it with exhaustion and said, "I'll have to get that later."

                "Allow me," the Professor insisted, holding out a hand. A blue sphere of light appeared around the sand, and it disappeared. "With the kind of evil that's been absorbing, it's probably better off in Cross-Time than anywhere else."

                Mom nodded, too tired to argue, and Kenny held up his picture of Yoroibu, and the crossed-out Holy Person, and mumbled, "Made a mistake."

                The Professor paused for a moment before making the drawing disappear in the same way the sand had. "We all make mistakes, young Ken. What's important is learning from them."

                He was starting to fall asleep again, so Mom took him. "Bedtime. We'll have to do your birthday when you wake up."

                She carried him to bed and turned on his nightlight. The Professor waited a little longer, and he mumbled, "I don't think I need that right now."

                "Oh, perhaps not," he agreed. "But for now, a little light may be a good thing. No matter how the darkness tries to exterminate it, it will always shine."

                Kenny closed his eyes and fell asleep, so he didn't know if the Professor left the light on or not. He woke up to Mom a few hours later, telling him that Dad was on the phone. Dad sounded just as tired as he was, and he was sad he missed Kenny's birthday, but Kenny was just happy that they'd helped keep him safe from the great evil and tried to explain everything.

                He got to blow out his candles and eat his birthday cake for breakfast, and Dad sent his present through a teleporter—a massive playset of the new _Shin Sumo Slammers: Samurai_ toys that had just been released. Great-Grandpa Wes came over while Kenny was playing, and Mom asked him to do a proper healing. It was a long and busy day, but Kenny finally felt like a grown-up, and he liked that Mom and the Professor trusted him with important stuff like this.

                But he couldn't deny that he wished maybe his next birthday would be a little less crazy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If I've utterly failed at depicting Navajo tradition, especially the sandpaintings, I apologize profusely. But at least I've covered myself somewhat by mentioning that this is a rushed ceremony and Kai would ordinarily never violate any of these taboos, and she's trying to fix it afterwards.
> 
> I own up to a couple of throwaway references to _Kamen Rider_ : Paradox's final line is an oblique reference to a line in the _Kiva_ song "Roots of the King," which is a title I hope to use in the not-too-distant future, and Ken's new favorite _Sumo Slammers_ character is Yoroibu, the Google Translate reading of the kanji 鎧武 which we know as "Gaim."


	3. Storm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ken's seventh birthday is spent hiding from a dangerous enemy in the heart of a storm.

                It was Kenny's seventh birthday when he heard that song again, when Great-Grandpa Max took him on a sudden trip in the Rustbucket, through a thundering storm. He'd found an old photo album when he heard the familiar lyrics:

                _"I am immortal, I have inside me blood of kings_

_I have no rival, no man can be my equal_

_Take me to the future of you all!"_

                "I know that song, Great-Grandpa," he said suddenly, looking up from an old picture from when his father was young.

                "I'm surprised you do," Great-Grandpa said. "Your dad never really enjoyed my kind of music."

                "It wasn't Dad," he explained. "Someone else sang it." Great-Grandpa nodded. "What's it called?"

                "'Princes of the Universe' by Queen. Great band."

                "Uh-huh," Kenny agreed, nodding. But it was old—maybe that was why the Professor used to sing it all the time.

                He looked back down at the picture. It wasn't exactly a happy scene, but Great-Grandpa had been trying to make the best of it. Dad and Aunt Gwendolyn had clearly been fighting, and Dad was sulking the whole time. He took the picture and walked over to Great-Grandpa.

                "What happened in this one?"

                Great-Grandpa glanced at it for a moment before answering, "Oh, that's my sixtieth birthday. Your aunt had huge plans on setting up a party, but your dad couldn't keep up with her."

                "How come?" Kenny asked, putting the picture back.

                "Well, you have to understand—your dad and Aunt Gwendolyn didn't get along when they were kids. It's taken them a long time to learn how to work as a team. Gwendolyn had planned a party and put your dad in charge of getting a cake, but by the time we'd gotten to the campsite..."

                "He didn't," Kenny realized, closing the album.

                Great-Grandpa noticed the disappointment in his voice and warned, "Now, don't get like that—it was a long trip that summer, and Ben forgot to buy a cake at the last grocery store we'd stopped at. He probably didn't realize that he wouldn't get another chance until much later."

                Kenny nodded, though he wasn't convinced. He was getting older, and he knew better than to expect a lot from his father when it came to birthdays. As he set the photo album back, he spotted a strange device on the shelf. "What's this?"

                Great-Grandpa waited until he reached a red light before turning around. When he saw what Kenny was holding, he smiled. "You found my old camera."

                Kenny walked back up to the driver's side, asking, "This is a camera?"

                "An old film one, long before digital and holographic," he explained. "It printed a photo right after you took it. You can keep it if you'd like."

                "Really?" he asked, smiling.

                "Buckle up," Great-Grandpa warned, and Kenny buckled into his seat, holding the camera and looking through the viewfinder. "I still have some film for it, and your aunt can probably find some easier than I can nowadays. Call it an extra birthday present."

                Kenny thought about taking a picture of the storm, but things were blurring by too fast, and the skies were too dark. He put the camera in his lap and asked, "Where are we going?"

                "Well, it was supposed to be a surprise, but we're going to your Uncle Ken's house," he said. "Your Aunt Gwendolyn's waiting there."

                "And Dad?" Kenny pressed. Great-Grandpa hesitated for a moment, and he was old enough to know what that meant.

                "Sorry, Kenny, but your dad's..."

                "Busy," he sighed.

                "It's far worse than that," said a familiar voice, and Great-Grandpa pulled the Rustbucket over in a sudden stop. They turned around to see the Professor standing behind them, frowning. "Sorry about the scare. I know you're on edge."

                "Yeah, I'm moreso now," Great-Grandpa said. "If you're here, that means..."

                The Professor nodded solemnly. "The other Ken Tennyson's house has been compromised. Gwendolyn got him to safety at the Mt. Rushmore base, but both she and the Galactic Enforcers have engaged Kevin."

                "Kevin?" Kenny repeated in shock while Great-Grandpa winced. "Kevin 11? He's _here_?"

                "I was trying to keep that under wraps," Great-Grandpa admitted.

                "He would have caught on sooner or later," the Professor replied. "Quite intelligent, that young one."

                "A little _too_ smart for his own good sometimes," Great-Grandpa grumbled.

                "What are we going to do about Kevin?" Kenny asked.

                " _We_ are going into hiding, just like planned," Great-Grandpa explained. When Kenny gave him a look of disappointment, he warned, "Don't even try."

                "But how are you going to hide me if Kevin found your last hiding place?" Kenny pointed out.

                There was a brief, annoyed silence before the Professor added, "He's good."

                "You've got a suggestion?" Great-Grandpa asked.

                "Unfortunately, there is no place on Earth that is safe from Kevin while he's loose," the Professor explained.

                Kenny caught on before Great-Grandpa did. "So you have to take me to space!"

                "Right you are!" the Professor cheered.

                Great-Grandpa sighed. "I'm starting to wonder if Gwen really _did_ curse Ben when she said she hoped his kid turned out just like him."

                "It's only logical," the Professor continued. "Kevin's base of operations was the Saturnian colony, Firefly City. He has no reason to go back."

                Kenny thought for a moment there was something sad about the way the Professor said that. But before he could ask, Great-Grandpa said, "When you're right, you're right. And we all know you well enough to know you'd never take Kenny anywhere dangerous."

                "Oh, not in the least dangerous!" the Professor promised.

                "So can I go?" Kenny asked.

                Great-Grandpa hesitated again, but this time, Kenny knew he'd have to agree. And sure enough, he answered, "Fine. But you take him out of there the second it's unsafe."

                "Of course, he'll be safe," the Professor insisted as Kenny jumped out of his seat, toting his camera. "We're only going to the Dragon Storm."

                And they disappeared in a flash of blue light before Great-Grandpa had the chance to change his mind.

                The Dragon Storm on Saturn was an atmospheric wonder discovered back in 2004, when scientists deduced that it was an example of lightning outside of Earth. Pieces of it occasionally broke off or merged, and this was one of the times when the whole dragon was in a single piece, roaring with electricity. Kenny hadn't known any of this to start, but he listened intently as the Professor explained, all the while snapping pictures with Great-Grandpa's camera.

                "So is the colony trying to get electricity from the storm?" he asked.

                "Very good question," the Professor noted. "Unfortunately, this time, you're mistaken—Firefly collects energy from the winds around it, rather than from lightning; lightning is too unpredictable to be a viable power source for such a large colony. Instead, as it passes through, it's collecting readings for further research."

                "To figure out how storms work?" Kenny guessed. "On planets like this?"

                "Precisely," he replied.

                Something else occurred to Kenny, and he quickly snapped a picture of the Professor, who looked at him in confusion. Kenny just smiled and went back to taking pictures of the lightning. The Professor didn't seem to think much of it and went back to lecturing.

                "The Dragon consumes smaller storms for energy, but it also spawns them," he explained.

                "Like laying eggs?" Kenny asked in confusion. "And then eating them?"

                "An apt comparison," the Professor agreed. "But unlike, say, a human parent, a storm cannot be held accountable for what it does to the smaller storms it creates. They are all part of the same weather, and larger storms can and do absorb the smaller ones."

                "And it's all connected," Kenny said. "Create and destroy?"

                "Right you are," the Professor replied. "But then, everyone is capable of either ability, correct? The choice to create or destroy?"

                Kenny stopped for a moment and stared out into the clouds. The ability to create or destroy. For storms, even Dragons, it wasn't a choice. It was something they had to do by their very nature. But people had the ability to choose.

                Creating a family or choosing to split it apart. Creating a drawing for the gods and choosing to destroy it once evil contaminated it.

                He sat down and pulled his knees up. He knew his dad fought to protect him and only left him with the rest of his family for his safety. But it meant destroying their bond.

                "You know what I want for my birthday?" he asked. "I want an Omnitrix. Not just for its powers, but so I can help Dad. So he doesn't have to worry about protecting me, and so I can be with him."

                "Wishes like that can be helpful," the Professor admitted. "But be careful to remember the reason _why_ you wish for it." As Kenny looked up at him, he said, "It's been my experience that when people ask 'What do you want,' what they also need to ask is 'Who are you, and _why_ do you want this?'"

                He sat for a moment and looked at his photos. Storms didn't want anything. They didn't have any reason to. They just _were_. People had to have a reason.

                It was all way too complex, even for a seven-year-old.

                There was another boy's voice not far away, saying, "I know all about it! The Dragon Storm's been going on forever, and it even eats the other storms it creates!"

                The Professor smiled secretly. "It appears there's another tour going on. I think it would be prudent if we were not found right now. Come along, young Ken. I believe you have a birthday we must return to."

                The Professor walked over and took his hand, and they disappeared into a flash of blue light, just as an eight-year-old boy turned the corner.

                "Wow," he gasped. "Professor, look! It was like there was lightning, right here!"

                "Oh, I'm sure there's another explanation for it," answered his companion, the Professor from another point in space and time. "Come along, Devlin. I believe you have a curfew to meet."

                Devlin Levin stared after the storming skies with longing before admitting, "Yeah, you're right. Dad's gonna kill me if I'm late again."

                The Professor walked up to the little boy who craved love and affection and placed a hand on his shoulder. It wouldn't be enough, ever, but it did gently guide him away.

                People could choose between destruction and creation. Some just had a harder time believing in that choice.

                By the time Ken made it home, Kevin had been defeated and sent back to the Null Void for good. It was midnight, and technically, everyone had missed his birthday. But Dad felt awful and picked up a cake for him, and they celebrated in the Mt. Rushmore base.

                It wasn't the best birthday he'd ever have, but it was one better than he'd had in a long time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Dragon Storm is a real weather system on Saturn, and all information I have on it here comes from NASA. Firefly City is named as a _Sailor Moon_ reference; Sailor Saturn's real name is Hotaru, and while no kanji is given for her, a possible meaning could be "firefly."


	4. Supernova

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ken's tenth birthday passes without a visit from the Professor. Both he and Devlin try to put things together.

                It was Ken's tenth birthday, and nothing happened.

                Okay, no. That wasn't fair. A _lot_ had happened; it just wasn't Professor-related. Kevin 11 had broken out of the Null Void, with help from his son, Devlin. Well, not just Devlin, Ken too—he insisted on sharing the blame no matter how many times Devlin tried to say it was his fault; Devlin had been used by his father and then he'd used his friendship with Ken to break him out. Nobody blamed him for that other than himself. Dad tried to explain that Kevin used people, but it only made Devlin feel worse.

                That was when Ken got the idea to drag him into their room and play videogames until they both forgot all about Kevin. Devlin liked that plan.

                Sharing a room with his new foster brother wasn't so bad, but Dad constantly went nuts with the mess they left behind. As it stood, they had to dig under a pile of clothes and toys to find the controllers for their game.

                "Found it!" he cried.

                "Great," Devlin answered, kicking away an old _Sumo Slammers: Samurai_ doll. But once he did, he noticed a box. "Hey, did you forget a birthday present or something?"

                "No," he said, walking over. "Oh, that thing."

                "Huh?" Devlin asked.

                Ken took the box and opened it. Inside was the photo of the Professor he'd taken three years ago, along with some drawings and notes he'd written on paper instead of a computer. It was low-tech, but Great-Grandpa always said that sometimes, doing things the old-fashioned way was for the best. And in any case, nobody expected him to write something down instead of try to lock a computer file.

                "It's something I've been trying to figure out for a while," he explained.

                "Wait," Devlin said, looking carefully at the picture. "I know him."

                "You do?"

                Devlin nodded. "Called the Professor? Speaks in riddles? Knows a lot about space?"

                "Yeah," Ken answered. "That's him. How do you know him?"

                "He showed up a few times," he explained. "I thought he was a scientist for Firefly City's research station, since he took me up to watch the Dragon Storm once."

                "The Dragon Storm?" Ken repeated, in shock. "That's where I took this picture!"

                "No way," Devlin said, taking a closer look. "The colony was only there for a day—how'd he get between me and you so fast?"

                "He couldn't," Ken answered. "He was in two places at the same time."

                For what would become the first of many times, Devlin gave him a look of absolute confusion—no, that wasn't quite right. "Confusion" was trying to understand a mysterious professor with teleportation and other weird powers who showed up on Ken's birthdays and said something cryptic before disappearing. "Confusion" was Ken taking the picture, then bringing up the family photos from his computer, and pointing out the difference to Devlin.

                "See this picture?" he asked, bringing up a photo of his family at his late birthday party three years before. "This is from when I was seven. Notice anything about Dad?"

                There wasn't a word in English for the look on Devlin's face as he asked, "Well, he looks tired, but I don't get..."

                "Not him being tired," Ken insisted, his brain already lightyears ahead of Devlin's. He switched to a photo of his Dad actually taking the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to take him to his first day of kindergarten. "That's when I was five. See the difference?"

                Devlin did not. The expression on his face didn't change. Impatient, Ken sighed and said, "His hair—it's not even grey then. Dad doesn't like it when I point it out, but he's getting old. There's more and more grey hair every year."

                Now, it was beginning to click, and Devlin said, "So Ben keeps getting older. And you keep getting older."

                "Right," Ken answered. "But the Professor isn't."

                There was a pause, and finally Devlin asked, "So what does that mean?"

                Ken didn't know how to answer. But he caught the glow of blue light from behind him, followed by a familiar voice asking, "Yes, what _does_ it mean?"

                They turned around to see the Professor, smiling. For a moment, they looked at each other, each looking like an Opticoid in headlights.

                "I'm very interested to hear what you think, Ken," the Professor insisted.

                Ken looked at Devlin, but he only shrugged. He was on his own.

                "Well..." Ken started, thinking hard. He glanced down at the photo. "You look the same." The Professor nodded. "And this was three years ago."

                "Correct," he answered.

                Ken got up and started pacing. "You know a song that my great-grandpa knows. 'Princes of the Universe,' by Queen."

                Devlin quickly ran the term through the computer. "Whoa, that song's from 1986!"

                "It's old enough that Dad doesn't even listen to it," Ken said. "You know Dad and Mom and Great-Grandpa. But Mom doesn't like you."

                The Professor's smile didn't falter a bit, and he sounded too amused as he said, "No, she does not."

                "She called you 'timewalker,'" he remembered. "And you teleported me to Saturn."

                "Yes, I did," the Professor replied.

                "While you were already there with Devlin," Ken said. "I didn't know what a 'timewalker' was back then, but it makes sense now. You can time-travel."

                "Close," the Professor answered. "So close."

                Now, Devlin caught on. "You can _control_ time!"

                "There!" the Professor replied excitedly. "Where one falters, the other picks it up and carries through! You both are correct—I am a time-traveler, but because I can control time, to a certain degree."

                "A degree?" Ken repeated.

                "It's more of a matter of figuring out how to get time to listen to you, rather than making it do as you say," the Professor explained. "I don't 'control' it any more than a parent controls their children." There was a brief shadow across Devlin's face, and he quickly added, "I keep in mind time is the one to make all the decisions, and simply help it along. Guide it in one way or another. In the end, I can't make anyone else's choices for them; I can only help show them either way."

                They went quiet for a moment, thinking it over. Well, Ken was thinking it over; he figured Devlin was more _feeling_ it over. The Professor had intervened in their lives, guiding them during difficult times, but he'd always left the decisions up to them.

                Seeing them trying to digest it, the Professor said, "Let me show you another way, then."

                The room around them disappeared, and they found themselves floating in the vastness of space, sitting above an erupting sun.

                "That star you see below you is about to go supernova," the Professor explained.

                "Won't that be dangerous?" Devlin checked.

                "Oh, not for us," the Professor assured him. "The same properties that have shielded us from the vacuum are also in place to protect against radiation, heat, and all sorts of other nasty side-effects of a star exploding."

                Now, the brothers traded grins and admitted, "Cool!"

                The Professor smiled as Ken asked, "What star is this? Can we see it from Earth?"

                "Oh, it's a very old one, from very long ago," the Professor explained. "The light from its explosion has been gone for a very long time, by the time you come from."

                "So we went back in time again?" Devlin asked, grinning.

                "Correct," the Professor replied. "And now, time must go forward." He put on his goggles. "I recommend that you don't look directly at it."

                They quickly looked out of the way, but at the moment of nova, Ken saw light and dust beginning to spray out across the universe. When it was safe to look again, there was nothing left—the stardust was scattering across stellar winds far too fast for them to see anymore.

                "That star's life has come to an end," the Professor said. "But something new can be born from what remains."

                Below them, the stardust was condensing, forming light once more, surrounded by a ring of dust, then stone. Billions of years passed in seconds, and a new star was born, with brand new planets surrounding it.

                "Had that star not exploded, these planets would not be here, and whatever life may spring from them would never come to exist," the Professor explained. "And far beyond this new system, the expelled matter from the supernova will give birth to new celestial bodies as well."

                Almost as if the star's explosion had set off a chain reaction inside them, a strange inversion happened in their personalities. Where he'd normally become quiet, trying to deal with the emotions, Devlin was instead asking thousands of questions—about the star, about the planets, about what came next. Ken, instead, was the quiet one, rather than the curious one he usually was. He could only stare down at the new star, so much smaller than the old one, and wonder why couldn't it be both ways? An old star and a new one, no destruction needed to create new. No loss, no pain.

                He hadn't realized that the Professor had stopped answering Devlin's questions until he placed a hand on his shoulder. Ken looked up at him in surprise.

                "You don't understand," the Professor noticed. Ken shook his head. "Then I pray you never do."

                "Understand what?" Devlin asked.

                There was something dividing them, something Ken couldn't possibly understand. It was in the way Devlin looked so longingly and so hesitantly on the way Ken and his dad weren't afraid to show any emotion around each other—whether love or annoyance. The way he flinched when Ken's dad got mad, and the surprise when all that happened after was Ken storming off to his room and slamming the door after losing some privileges. The way he was surprised there was always someone to watch them when Dad was out, and the way he got very quiet and very sad when his own father was mentioned.

                The way he looked at the new star, born from the destruction of the old, and seemed to understand. But what he understood, Ken couldn't grasp.

                "Nothing," Ken finally answered with a smile.

                "Then perhaps, it's best if I bring you home," the Professor decided. "Before your family decides I really am a bad influence after all."

                This, Ken could smile at, and as the familiar blue light opened around him, he put no further thought toward the sudden brilliance of a supernova, the darkness following it, or the new light that formed from its ashes.

**Author's Note:**

> Queen's "Princes of the Universe" was written by the late, great Freddie Mercury. There is also a very slight reference to Gackt's "Journey through the Decade" from _Kamen Rider Decade_ , as foreshadowing for a future fic. I also apologize for the blatant _Doctor Who_ references with Paradox, but it's nigh-impossible to avoid them with him.


End file.
